ACCRA Quartet Gbɛfalɔi

Recorded on a hot night in a one-room gospel music studio in the New Town district of Accra, comes Gbɛfalɔi -- a remarkable record exploring the edges of contemporary African music. Ghanaian trombonist Elikplim Kofi and American guitarist Nathaniel Braddock had met at a concert at Accra's Alliance Française in 2017 when they both performed as members of the Abiza band. When Eli heard that Braddock was returning to Ghana in 2019, he reached out via WhatsApp to suggest a collaboration, sharing a sketch of a song and asking Braddock to produce a collaboration record. That August, they set up the session joined by two percussionists, known as Black and Brown. This session is the product of that night. Contemporary music in Ghana is dominated by a mix of afrobeats, electric gospel, and an emergent revival of highlife stars from the 1970s. This set of improvised music sits on a different axis -- at once traditional and Avant Garde, ancient and futuritive, extremely local and thoroughly cosmopolitan. Anchored in folkloric instruments and free improvisation, the music is more like the Art Ensemble of Chicago than the court drummers of the Ashanti king. A rare gem. MUSICIANS Nii Addotey Brown Asalasu specializes in kujonku and the most traditional ancestral instruments. A deeply spiritual musician, Brown says music is every part of my being. I believe that this is my mission here. Daniel Tettey Black grew up within the Ga drumming tradition of Gome, Kpanlogo, and Kojonku, and has performed with Hugh Masekela, Stevie Wonder, and Kofi Ghanaba, among others. Elikplim Amewode Kofi comes from the Ewe zone in the east of the country. For his Brass Democrat project, Eli travels to rural schools to offer instruction on all brass instruments, impacting thousands of Ghanaian children. Nathaniel Braddock lives in the States, but travels to Africa frequently, working with musicians from Ghana, Congo, Mali, Uganda, Zambia, and elsewhere.